There was a sharp intake of breath over the weekend when it was revealed that the Saudi Arabian government came close to buying control of the notorious Italian surveillance software company Hacking Team for $42 million – apparently with the assistance of the US.

Hackers managed to access production networks at a German steel maker, allowing them to tamper with the controls of a blast furnace. According to a German government report, published by the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), it was a rare case where a digital attack actually caused physical damage.